There has been a recent increased emphasis on the use of unmanned aerial vehicles for performing, various activities in both civilian and military situations where the use of manned flight vehicles is not appropriate or efficient. One particular potential application is air cargo and freight transportation.
The process of shipping goods throughout the world is complicated by various factors such as geographic remoteness, lack of ground transportation infrastructure, political instability and environmental factors such as temperature. In some cases while it is possible to ship goods to remote or hard to reach locations, the risk to human life is too great to utilize conventional air cargo.
Transportation of cargo within remote undeveloped areas, for example, sections of Africa, Asia and South America is presently difficult because of the geographic remoteness and lack of ground transportation infrastructure. Therefore, goods shipped by land face a long and arduous journey, while conventional air cargo can be prohibitively expensive.
Another problem with the shipment of cargo arises from the lack of infrastructure to handle the volume of freight to be moved in a time efficient manner. For example, most trade in Europe in accomplished by utilizing ground freight containers. There are currently a large number of container ports being utilized, however due to the ever-increasing volume; the movement in and out of these container ports is severely restricted. In addition, because of the formalities required at border crossings, traffic flow is constrained, thus increasing transportation time and cost.
A further problem encountered using convention air freight methods has been reaching locations that have severe weather conditions such as in the Artic and Antarctic. These locations are typically accessed using air transport during temperate seasons due to the risks to pilots and other aircraft personnel presented during seasons severe weather. Such seasonal supply limitations presented by weather conditions can present difficulties for personnel stationed in these regions, especially in emergency situations such as medical emergencies.
A further problem associated with conventional air vehicles is the risk encountered by pilots engaging activities such as fire fighting. Conditions such as pilot fatigue, darkness, and environmental factors caused by the fire all present increased risk factors to pilot performing this type of activity.
In addition to the factors concerning the difficulties in moving freight and cargo due to geographic and environmental factors, the use of conventional air freight also presents several logistical problems. Such logistical problem prevalent in conventional air freight operations are the time needed to load and unload a plane, and the expense of the aircraft. Loading and unloading aircraft in the conventional manner generally requires the movement of the cargo in small discreet loads, such as palletized loads. The use of palletized loads is an inefficient use of an air transport vehicle because time spent on the ground increases turn-around time, (the time required to unload an aircraft, perform service, and load the next freight shipment), which slows the process for moving freight.
Additionally, the high cost of an air cargo vehicle, especially with respect to the size of the load that can be transported, is a problem. For example, the cost of ground transportation per unit of mass transported is far less than the cost of air transportation per unit of mass transported. A portion of the excess cost is due to the greater cost of the air transport vehicle in relation to the ground transport vehicle and the cost of operation, another factor is the high cost of air crews (pilots, copilots which materially add to the operational cost of the vehicle. A factor in increasing both of these costs is increased cost of aircraft avionics in relation to ground based vehicle control systems and aircraft cabin environmental controls.
Prior air cargo systems did not satisfactorily address these problems. The prior air cargo vehicles were not designed to satisfy these particular uses. The present air cargo vehicles tended to be inefficient to load and unload due to the difficulty access to the cargo hold and the manner in which cargo had to be loaded into the vehicle. Environmental factors also limited the usefulness of prior art systems. The prior air cargo vehicles were relatively expensive as well.
None of the prior air cargo vehicles satisfactorily provided the efficiency of transporting cargo and freight that is desired. It is therefore desirable to provide such a vehicle that will allow cargo and freight, to be easily and securely transported to remote areas, lacking in infrastructure to adequately provide for ground transportation needs using a low cost and efficient vehicle. In addition, there is a need for an air cargo and transport system to provide airborne service in applications of high risk in order to accomplish essential tasks.